The social-media site on Thursday filed paperwork for an initial public offering in what will be the most highly anticipated public debuts since Facebook Inc. went public in May 2012. Twitter has accumulated more than 200 million users since it was founded seven years ago.

The number should be considered a placeholder for now. Filers are required to give an amount on their first filing, but Twitter could ultimately raise much more or even less. Facebook’s first filing, for instance, said it was seeking to raise up to $5 billion, but most knew the final IPO would raise multiples more. It ultimately priced a deal that raised over $16 billion.

Twitter didn’t select an exchange in the filing, keeping the fight alive for both NYSE and Nasdaq. It is common for a company to not name which exchange it will list in the first filing, as negotiations are likely ongoing with both.

Here’s the list of Twitter underwriters, in order they appear in the filing. The top three banks, which WSJ reported last month, are the same as Facebook’s with the notable change that Goldman has taken the lead and Morgan Stanley has slid to second on the list.

Here’s what Twitter says it will do with the funds it raises: “The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our capitalization and financial flexibility, create a public market for our common stock and enable access to the public equity markets for us and our stockholders.”

“We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. We anticipate making capital expenditures in 2013 of approximately $225 million to $275 million, and we may use a portion of the net proceeds to fund our anticipated capital expenditures. We also may use a portion of the net proceeds to satisfy our anticipated tax withholding and remittance obligations related to the settlement of our outstanding Pre-2013 RSUs, or we may choose to allow our employees who are not executive officers holding such awards to sell shares of our common stock in the public market to satisfy their income tax obligations related to the vesting and settlement of such awards. …

“Additionally, we may use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire businesses, products, services or technologies. However, except for our proposed acquisition of MoPub in exchange for shares of our common stock, we do not have agreements or commitments for any material acquisitions at this time.”

Included in the filing is this – characteristically short – letter from Jack Dorsey:

Twitter was born on March 21, 2006, with just 24 characters.

We started with a simple idea: share what you’re doing, 140 characters at a time. People took that idea and strengthened it by using @names to have public conversations, #hashtags to organize movements, and Retweets to spread news around the world. Twitter represents a service shaped by the people, for the people.

The mission we serve as Twitter, Inc. is to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers. Our business and revenue will always follow that mission in ways that improve–and do not detract from–a free and global conversation.

Thank you for supporting us through your Tweets, your business, and now, your potential ownership of this service we continue to build with you.

The biggest risk factor for Twitter, the company says, is simply that its users remain engaged with the service.

“If people do not perceive our products and services to be useful, reliable and trustworthy, we may not be able to attract users or increase the frequency of their engagement with our platform and the ads that we display.”

Or, to put it simply, if people get bored and drift off, the company will have problems.

Twitter’s revenue jumped 198% to $316.9M in 2012, according to its IPO filing. “Advertising services” revenue has skyrocketed in the past few years, to account for the lion’s share of Twitter’s top line. The company posted a $79.4M loss for the period, narrower than the $128.3M it had lost in 2011. As reported earlier, Goldman Sachs is leading the offering with Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan. BofA, Deutsche Bank are also on the deal, along with Allen & Co. and CODE Advisors.

The company said it had 218.3 million monthly active users as of June 30, an increase of 44% from the 151.4 million it had on June 30, 2012, but it’s not naive about its ability to continue growing at that rate.

“We anticipate that our user growth rate will slow over time as the size of our user base increases.”

Twitter said a higher percentage of Internet users in the U.S. are on the site compared to overseas, and it expects growth rates in overseas markets – it mentions specifically Argentina, France, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Afrida – will be higher than growth rates in the U.S.

“If our users do not continue to contribute content or their contributions are not valuable to other users, we may experience a decline in the number of users accessing our products and services and user engagement, which could result in the loss of advertisers and revenue.”

In essense, the company’s saying that what really matters for Twitter is the community of users. Judging from the number of tweets that were attached to the finale of “Breaking Bad,” that’s not a problem right now.

Twitter didn’t announce whether it chose the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Stock Market for its primary stock listing. That means a continued waiting game for the exchange operators, who stand to reap fees as well as bragging rights if they snag the high-profile listing.

It’s not unusual for a company to delay its decision regarding which U.S. stock exchange it will choose for its primary listing, or to keep the choice close to the vest for a while. Companies often file documents without language relating to who they’ve chosen as their primary exchange.

In 2012, Facebook tabbed Nasdaq, although the social network didn’t make that announcement in its S-1.

Dating back to Facebook’s debut in May 2012, 113 companies have chosen the NYSE as their primary stock listing, while the Nasdaq has been home to 117 new listings, according to data compiled by Dealogic.

In considering which exchange to choose, companies often look at the costs associated with listing on a particular exchange as well as the promotional efforts and exchange will make to raise a corporation’s profile, including events like the NYSE’s or Nasdaq’s opening and closing bell ceremonies. Exchanges offer corporations various other services for a variety of needs, such as investor relations.

NYSE Euronext, which owns the NYSE, and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., owner of the Nasdaq, have battled for years for some of the top stock listings by offering incentives such as co-branding possibilities and prime advertising space.

Among some high-profile tech listings in recent years, both exchanges have scored big wins. In 2011, NYSE nabbed LinkedIn Corp. and Pandora Media Inc., while Nasdaq won Groupon Inc. and Zynga Inc.

Sure, Twitter’s popular today, and this IPO will get bring it a ton of attention. But the company’s philosophical about its future, and acknowledges in the risk factors that the winds of change have blown against other hot spots, and could some day blow against Twitter.

“A number of consumer-oriented websites that achieved early popularity have since seen their user bases or levels of engagement decline, in some cases precipitously. There is no guarantee that we will not experience a similar erosion of our user base or engagement levels.”

Specifically, the company lists these risks:

- “Users engage with other products, services or activities as an alternative to ours;

- “Influential users, such as world leaders, government officials, celebrities, athletes, journalists, sports teams, media outlets and brands or certain age demographics conclude that an alternative product or service is more relevant;

- “We are unable to convince potential new users of the value and usefulness of our products and services;

- “There is a decrease in the perceived quality of the content generated by our users;

- “We fail to introduce new and improved products or services or if we introduce new products or services that are not favorably received.”

Twitter notes that it generates the “substantial majority” of its revenue from advertising, so the loss of ad revenue “could harm our business.” Thus, a key for the company isn’t just generating ad revenue, but convincing advertisers that it’s worth their time and money to user Twitter as an ad platform.

“We generated 85% and 87% of our revenue from advertising in 2012 and the six months ended June 30, 2013, respectively,” company says in filing. Of that advertising, “substantially all” of it comes from three sources: promoted tweets, promoted accounts, and promoted trends.

The company notes that its advertisers don’t have long-term commitments with it, something it says is common in the industry. Also, many of its advertisers buy space through third parties. Twitter says it may need to devote “additional time and resources to educate them about our products and services.”

Advertisers also may use Twitter’s free platform to reach users, rather than the promoted services.

“Advertisers will not continue to do business with us, or they will reduce the prices they are willing to pay to advertise with us, if we do not deliver ads in an effective manner, or if they do not believe that their investment in advertising with us will generate a competitive return relative to alternatives.”

Twitter has to be among the only S1 filings to mention Osama Bin Laden. Here’s the reference, in a section explaining its business.

We are inspired by how Twitter has been used around the world. President Obama used our platform to first declare victory publicly in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, with a Tweet that was viewed approximately 25 million times on our platform and widely distributed offline in print and broadcast media. A local resident in Abbottabad, Pakistan unknowingly reported the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound on Twitter hours before traditional media and news outlets began to report on the event. During the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, people came to Twitter to understand the extent of the disaster, find loved ones and follow the nuclear crisis that ensued. For individuals and organizations seeking timely distribution of content, Twitter moves beyond traditional broadcast mediums by assembling connected audiences. Twitter brings people together in shared experiences allowing them to discover and consume content and just as easily add their own voice in the moment.

Twitter writes: “We believe that advertising revenue per timeline view is a measure of our ability to monetize our platform. In the three months ended June 30, 2013, our advertising revenue per timeline view was $0.80, which represents a 26% increase from the three months ended June 30, 2012. In the three months ended June 30, 2013, our advertising revenue per timeline view in the United States was $2.17 and our advertising revenue per timeline view in the rest of the world was $0.30, which represent increases of 26% and 111% from the three months ended June 30, 2012, respectively. We record advertising revenue based on the billing location of our advertisers, rather than the location of our users.”

Mobile is booming for Twitter, just as it was for Facebook. The catch, however, is making money off of people, which you may recall, caused quite a bit of issue at the other social network.

Twitter says in the last quarter, 75% of its average monthly users accessed Twitter from a mobile device, which includes tablets. Over 65% of the ad revenue in the quarter was generated on mobile devices.

Another risk the company highlights is that “new advertising strategies, such as television targeting and real-time video clips embedded in tweets, do not gain traction.”

“Television targeting” is a service that allows advertisers to run ads on Twitter during specific events, say, a football game, or The Walking Dead, or Sharknado (okay, maybe not Sharknado). It’s the kind of thing that exists in broadcasting, but given the way people use Twitter during these types of appointment TV, this could be a pretty powerful tool for Twitter.

WSJ’s Telis Demos points out that Duetsche Bank might not be the lead underwriter on the Twitter IPO, but the bank is the only non-U.S. bank currently on the deal and has actually picked up the most work overall in U.S. Internet and technology listings since the beginning of 2011, according to Dealogic.

Want to know about how much Twitter has infiltrated the media: ”A 2013 study conducted by Arbitron Inc. and Edison Research found that 44% of Americans hear about Tweets through media channels other than Twitter almost every day.”

Because everyone watches the Super Bowl, what better measure to see Twitter’s reach: “For example, during Super Bowl XLVII, over 24 million Tweets regarding the Super Bowl were sent during the game alone and 45% of television ads shown during the Super Bowl used a hashtag to invite viewers to engage in conversation about those television ads on Twitter.”

You don’t need to be a web native to understand this risk factor: losing money.

“We have incurred significant operating losses in the past, and we may not be able to achieve or subsequently maintain profitability.”

Since its inception (in 2006), Twitter says it had an accumulated deficit of $418.6 million, as of June 30, 2013. In other words, for all its popularity, Twitter isn’t making money.

Its revenue has gone from $28.3 million in 2010 to $316.9 million in 2012. But it expects its revenue growth rate will slow, due to several factors, including slowing growth in its user base. This puts the importance of generating ad revenue, and convincing advertisers of the worth of using Twitter, into perspective.

Spam isn’t something anybody likes, at least the kind that comes in digital form (the kind that comes in can form is another story). To the extent that spam mars the fun of being on Twitter, it’s a risk factor.

“Spam could diminish the user experience on our platform, which could damage our reputation and deter our current and potential users from using our products and services.”

CFO Journal’s Emily Chasan points out Twitter Inc. may have revealed its initial public offering Thursday, but it is still keeping some secrets: like the pay packages for its current and former chief financial officers. Under the JOBS Act, Twitter only has to disclose the compensation for its top three named executive officers, rather than five, which is required for a larger company.

“We continue to experience rapid growth in our headcount and operations, which will continue to place significant demands on our managment, operational and financial infrastructure,” company says in the filing.

As of June 30, the company had 2,000 employees, “an increase of over 1,800 employees since Jan. 1, 2010.” The company intends to continue its growth, expanding its research and development, operations, sales and marketing teams, as well as its growth overseas.

To fill all those positions with the best staffers it can find, the company notes it has to offer “highly competitive compensation packages.” The trick is to manage that growth, and the risk lies in hiring too many people and paying them too much, and expanding faster than its growth can support.

“Providing our products and services to our users is costly and we expect our expenses to continue to increase.”

“Our expenses may grow faster than our revenue, and our expenses may be greater than we anticipate.”

It’s no mystery or surprise that mobile is key to Twitter’s growth. When Facebook filed to go public, it had virtually no mobile ad revenue, and that was one of the biggest risk factors – it was in fact something that dogged Facebook until recently.

Mobile doesn’t seem to be a problem for Twitter, right now at least. The company notes that more than 65% of its ad revenue in the second-quarter came from mobile. “Since we generate a majority of our advertising revenue through users on mobile devices, we must continue to drive adoption of our mobile applications.”

Some of its services, and its names Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts, get less prominence on mobile applications than on desktop. “This has in the past reduced, and may in the future continue to reduce, the amount of revenue we are able to generate from these products and services.”

“Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as terrorism.”

On the other hand, who isn’t subejct to all of that?

Twitter notes it has a disaster recovery plan in place, and can move production to a back-up site if needed. But it doesn’t serve traffic equally from each data center, so if its primary center shuts down, some users may find themselves shut out.

Also, “We do not carry business interruption insurance sufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses, including the potential harm to our business that may result from interruptions in our ability to provide our products and services.”

Oh look, another IPO, for all you hungry readers out there. Potbelly, the sandwich chain, priced its IPO at $14 a share, above the expected range, according to a headline crossing Dow Jones now. The range had been $12 to $13.

Twitter isn’t about to let some corporate raider swoop in and take over the company, and the amended certificate of incorporations and bylaws will include some strict poison-pill provisions.

Those provisions will include a classified board of directors, with members serving staggered three-year terms. The board will also be authorized to issue “blank check” preferred stock that could be issued without stockholder approval “and may contain voting, liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to our common stock.”

The company will also limit the ability of stockholders to bring business before special meetings, will require advance notice of stockholder proposals and “control the procedures for the conduct and scheduling of board of directors and stockholder meetings.”

“These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.”

We don’t know exactly how much of the stock big shareholders will control after the IPO, but it will be enough to maintain control of the company.

“Existing executive officers, directors, and holders of 5% or more of our common stock will collectively beneficially own % of our common stock and continue to have substantial control over us after this offering.”

That is not a typo in front of that second percentage sign. It was left blank. But the company was blunt about the fact that this concentrated ownership will have the power to control the company, even if they “have interests that differ from yours.”

As Emily Chasan pointed out, there isn’t much detail about executive pay.

But what we got was Richard Costolo, the CEO, made a total of $11.5 million in 20102, including a $200,000 salary and $8.4 million in stock. But, his salary has been cut to $14,000 effective in August.

Adam Bain, the president of global revenue, made $6.72 million, on a $200,000 salary and $4.71 million in stock.

Christopher Fry, a senior VP of engineering, made $10.3 million for the year off of a $145,513 salary, a $100,000 bonus and $10.1 million in stock awards.